The Erie Steelhead JAM 2009

The first annual Erie Steelhead JAM was a huge success! We had a great turnout with people from all across the state. A special thanks to Folly’s campground for their hospitality in the usage of their facilities!

In an attempt in not embarrassing myself in not remembering everyone’s names, I will not give a list of everyone who showed up. We had an estimated 25 guys (and one spouse!) came to fish the famous steelhead alley in Erie Pennsylvania over the weekend of October 30th to November 1st. A few members filtered in on Friday and braved the wind and the rain, but the majority of people showed up on Saturday morning.

We all met at the pavilion at Folly’s and planned our attack from there. Elk is about 50 yards away from the pavilion so it was the logical choice as the water was rising by the minute. A few headed down to the mouth of Elk to “beat the flows”. The fishing did not last very long as the creek visibly rose in front of our eyes. A few people got stuck on the wrong side of the stream and some of us watched in anticipation as they slowly crossed the creek. Those of us who were there then joined up the genius “beat the flow” guys and had a small window of fishing before the flows hit the mouth. Our early morning success was very limited as there were a few hookups and maybe 1 or 2 fish landed.

[more] We then headed back to the pavilion to eat an early lunch and plan out our afternoon fishing. We waited around for a while, caught up on the season’s fishing with old friendships and gained new ones. The plan for the afternoon was to head to the “mile” streams due to the smaller diameter and greater chance of fishability. The first stop was 20 mile which was still blown out, but 16 mile was up, but fishable. We doubled the amount of cars in the parking lot as we arrived and had some marginal success. The greatest joy of the weekend was seeing some first-timers get into their first hookups and eventually land their first steelhead! A few fish were landed before daylight caught up to us and we ended the fishing on Saturday.

We retired to our lodging and met up at Avonia Tavern that evening for some good food and fish stories. That time is great to hear stories from people across the whole state and the different fishing that is had in the great state of Pennsylvania. We all realize what a great tool PaFlyFish is and a special thanks goes out to Dave Kile for his management and support of the website! It got dark quick, but we all realized that daylight savings was not gaining an extra hour of sleep, but an extra hour of fishing on Sunday!

Sunday morning most of us met up at the pavilion to grab some left over donuts, coffee and head out to get into some good fishing at first daylight. Elk had dropped significantly (around 3 feet) over the past 12 hours and the fishing looked to be very promising. You could see the leaves up on the rock wall of where the water levels were the day before, compared to the current conditions. A group of us left early and hiked part way downstream to fish a few nice sections of the stream. The group I was in got into some fish in a nice run very early on. Catching fish that size, with the leaping ability and strength to test your drag never gets old. Fish were landed and smiles were had. It always amuses me of the communal “Awe” when a hooked fish tosses the hook in mid fight as all the fellow anglers encourage others to land their fish.

The crowd parted ways throughout the day to fish different parts of the stream and a good day was had by all. The steelhead were all very large and put up some great fights. I believe everyone caught fish on Sunday which is a great “treat”. The “trick” was getting one day of awful fishing to trade for one day of great fishing. So I guess the Halloween weekend paid off!

As the yawning increased in the afternoon, the crowd dissipated as those who had long drives headed home. A great time was had by all who attended and talks of plans for new adventures cured. The Erie Steelhead JAM 2009 was a huge success and anticipation for 2010’s event is already upon us!

A warm thank you to all who attended and those who frequent paflyfish.com,Ryan Gouldsbarry(ryguyfi)

Hey guys,Just got back from erie. enjoyed the jam. All you guys are 1st class. I never meet a bunch of guys willing to help any way they could. Answered any question,even when they sounded dumb from a rookie like me. You people make this web site worth going to. By the way thursday the hole by the camp ground was black with fish, hopefully they move up. Hope to see all you guys soon.Glenn

1 good laugh from erie,After the jam, monday I went combat fishing at wall nut, left there and went to elk where 1, I lost my fishing glasses, that was monday. Tuesday my wife hooked a real nice steel head, after chassing it up and down the river I stepped on my rod and broke it, but got the fish,she was happy, I was questionable.Wednesday ran out of underware, went to mall with wife, paid for underware, left them laying on counter, found out after I was back at camp ground.Thursday took dog for a walk, he peeded on my waders.Friday on the way home a rock cracked my wind shield. All in all caught some fish, met some world class guys, have a good laugh.Glenn aka tig